12 or 20 (second series) questions with Sarah Jane Sloat
Sarah J. Sloat
is a visual poet who splits her timebetween Frankfurt and Barcelona, where she works in news. Her collage, poetryand prose have appeared in Diagram, Shenandoah and Sixth Finch, among otherpublications. Sarah’s book of visual poetry, Classic Crimes, is due in2025 from Sarabande Books, which also published her previous book,
Hotel Almighty
.1 - How did your firstbook or chapbook change your life? How does your most recent work compare toyour previous? How does it feel different?
Writing poetry changed mylife, but I’m not sure publishing poetry has. My first chapbook came out about15 years ago and I’ve since published four more. Soon after the last chapbook Igot into visual poetry. It was a complete refresh for me, and at first seemed adiversion. But I got attached to bringing a visual element to my work, it addslayers, associations and new possibilities. After I published a number of poemsusing the novel Misery, Sarabande approached me with the idea of acollection, which became Hotel Almighty. I’m grateful and still astounded.I’ll publish a second book with Sarabande next year, sourced from WilliamRoughead’s Classic Crimes, one of the first books of true crime.
2 - How did you come topoetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
Suffering delivered medirectly to poetry.
3 - How long does it taketo start any particular writing project? Does your writing initially comequickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to theirfinal shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?
Not until I startederasure poetry did I ever start out with a larger project in mind. It wasalways poem by poem with me. Even now when I focus on a particular source textfor erasure I like to approach every poem as its own entity and put the othersout of my head. How many moods and tenses and forms and attitudes can springfrom one source? Thousands. I don’t go in with a hammer.
4 - Where does a poemusually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combininginto a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the verybeginning?
Can I be both? If not,I’m more a writer of short pieces that either begin to cohere with others, ordon’t.
5 - Are public readingspart of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer whoenjoys doing readings?
This is a hard onebecause I live in two countries, neither of which has English as a nativelanguage, so I can count my public readings on two hands even if you includeZoom. As a visual poet, I am trepidatious about readings mostly because oftechnology — I need a beamer/projector and screen or surface, etc. I fret aboutslides not working, batteries dying. This clobbers me with worry, but takes myfocus off my person, which is what most public readers worry about!
6 - Do you have anytheoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are youtrying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questionsare?
My work has a lot to dowith making the most of restrictions. My poems are sometimes trying to sort outa problem, if not explicitly. I want my poems to be beautiful and/or fun and/orhaunting but also to be pragmatic in a way, since in each case I am trying towork myself out of a box that puts constraints on what I can do.
7 – What do you see thecurrent role of the writer being in larger culture? Do they even have one? Whatdo you think the role of the writer should be?
Different writers canhave different roles, but we all reflect the times we live in. Each writerpasses along a way of looking at the world, of being within it.
8 - Do you find theprocess of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
I’ve never reallyexperienced a meddlesome editor. At Sarabande, I love(d) my editor, KristenMiller. She is so smart and insightful and she helps me make better decisions.
9 - What is the bestpiece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
As a woman, it’s to makeyourself a priority.
10 - How easy has it beenfor you to move between genres (poetry to visual work)? What do you see as theappeal?
With text I am able tofocus on words without visual considerations butting in. If I am doing collagealone it’s usually just to help me get away from myself.
In terms of having movedfrom writing poetry of words & white space to poetry that is text+visual, Itravelled over in the blink of an eye.
I had been writing poetryfor years when it struck me to combine found poetry with collage andmultimedia. I love the associations the visual elements conjure, even withoutbeing deliberately connected to the text. I also love collage in and of itself.Being confined to the small canvas of the page, with the arrangement of textI’ve wound up with, is a deeply pleasurable challenge.
11 - What kind of writingroutine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day(for you) begin?
My day job and travelobligations mean I don’t have a routine. I snatch at time in the evening when Ican, and on the weekends or a day off. There’s no daily plan.
But in terms of theoverarching routine of how I work, I spend time with the text first andforemost, and the visuals follow. Very rarely do I have any visual image inmind at the outset, even if collages I’ve done independently of any poemwheedle their way into a piece.
12 - When your writinggets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word)inspiration?
I go to my favoritepoets: Charles Wright, Vasko Popa, Emily Kendal Frey, Lesle Lewis, Mary Ann Samyn, Alfred Starr Hamilton, Victoria Chang. Too many to name.
13 - What fragrancereminds you of home?
My husband’s cologne.
14 - David W. McFaddenonce said that books come from books, but are there any other forms thatinfluence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
Visual art is a biginfluence, of course. There are so many great collage artists, but I also lovepainting and textile work. I wish life were longer and I could find time tolearn to paint and to become better at sewing.
15 - What other writersor writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of yourwork?
Let me go with non-poetryhere: Edouard Leve’s Autoportrait, Proust’s Swann’s Way, Lydia Davis, David Markson, Fleur Jaeggy, Lichtenberg’s The Waste Books, Kathryn Scanlan’s Aug 9 - Fog. I love short, enigmatic writing. I also love the rhapsodic.
16 - What would you liketo do that you haven't yet done?
Not get sick on a boat onthe sea.
17 - If you could pickany other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do youthink you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
I’d love to design bookcovers. But I don’t think I would have taken that path as a younger personbecause I wasn’t in an environment where such a possibility would have occurredto me. I’ve been a reporter, a NOW canvasser, a professor, a temp secretary, adog sitter and cold caller. If I could become something else it might be anecoterrorist or the space shuttle or a bottle of scotch.
18 - What made you write,as opposed to doing something else?
Writing was the highestgood in my childhood household. My parents read and talked about books, myfather was a writer. If I’d grown up among shepherds or glass blowers it mighthave been different.
19 - What was the lastgreat book you read? What was the last great film?
If I may, I’ll bundle thebooks I’ve read over the past four years by Annie Ernaux into one — TheYears, I Remain in Darkness, Happening, A Woman’s Story,A Man’s Place, Shame, Simple Passion. Ernaux’srecollections are close yet distant, scant on outright emotion. She tells thehuman story plain, without the attitude and posing that plague so much memoir.
As for film, I feel I seemovies a lot less frequently now than before the pandemic. Whether it was greator not I don’t know but I loved Toni Erdmann. I loved Sandra Hüller’sperformance, how she captured something about the German personality. It was funnyand sad. I’ve watched it a number of times.
20 - What are youcurrently working on?
I’ve got a new projectgoing with an American classic that suffuses me with secret pleasure! It’serasure/collage like my previous work, but feels different, simpler.
